Private schools ban Malala’s book

Private schools have been barred from buying a book written by global education icon Malala Yousafzai due to its “anti-Pakistan and anti-Islam content”, a top official said Sunday.

“Yes we have banned Malala’s book (‘I am Malala’) because it carries the content which is against our country’s ideology and Islamic values,” Kashif Mirza, chief of All Pakistan Private Schools Federation, told AFP.

“We are not against Malala. She is our daughter and she is herself confused about her book and her father has asked the publisher to remove the paragraphs about Salman Rushdie and write Peace Be Upon Him after the name of our Holy Prophet (PBUH),” Mirza said.

Mirza said that that some 152,000 private schools across Pakistan stood in solidarity with Malala after she was shot by the Taliban in Swat valley last year, but the views she had expressed in her autobiography were not “acceptable”.

“No school will buy ‘I am Malala’ for its library or any other co-curricular activity on the campus,” Mirza said.